Former Jefferson star Sammy Brown made an impressive debut at middle linebacker Saturday in Clemson football’s annual spring game.
The highly anticipated 5-star freshman recorded a sack against Team Orange on the very first drive for a loss of six yards. He also had eight tackles, six solo and two assisted, tying for the most on the day with junior linebacker Wade Woodaz.
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“For a kid with so much success as he had in high school, my emphasis on him was, ‘Hey man, you’re starting over at zero,'” coach and father Mike Brown said. “Everything you earn will be because you’ve gone on the field and worked your tail off, worked your tail off in meetings and prepared. That’s the biggest thing, the preparation changes at that level. I think he’s done a great job spending extra time in the meeting room with the coaches and the players and learning the position they had him in.
“I think, probably the second practice, we were talking, and he said, ‘Hey dad, we had eight checks to one coverage.’ And I was like, ‘Bud, going to get a lot more than that when it’s all said and done.’ It’s a lot to learn. The first couple of practices that I watched, I could tell he was still thinking, he was kind of playing slow. As the spring wore on, it looked like he became more and more comfortable and, in the game, he looked like he at least knew what he was supposed to be doing out there.”
Sara Tidwell covers Athens-area high school sports and University of Georgia athletics for The Athens Banner-Herald. Contact her at stidwell@gannett.com and follow her @saramtidwell on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Five-star recruit Sammy Brown stands out in Clemson spring game
